The Man In The Mirror
by kygirl101
Summary: Its Halloween, and the pranks are not all that fake. What happens when an intruder is not real, and one poor girl isn't who she thinks she is. AU-ish, minor gender bending. Enjoy the frightfest! T to be safe. The summary is misleading, somewhat.
1. Chapter 1

It started with a locked door. Or rather, the door that should have been locked that was now standing wide open. Baffled, Haruhi adjusted the brown paper bag she held and extended a hand out towards the handle.

"What?" the brunette asked nothing, half confused and half contemplative. Why was her door open? Why was it unlocked? Could someone have picked the lock? Could it have been that she forgot to lock it on her way to the supermarket? But no! Haruhi was sure she had done so, because she remembered dropping the keys behind the flower pot on her front stoop on the way out the door.

She'd picked them up, too, so that left no reasonable explanation for her door to be open.

Either way, the twenty-four year old law students walked into her tiny mother in-law house and deposited the overlarge book bag she was carrying next to her desk, which was cramped so close to the door that it was amazing she even managed to open the door that far. It was a small place to live: the kind one only wanted to spend a year in, if even that, but to Haruhi, it was home. Well, home for the time being; while she was in law school, that was.

Stumbling over her fat white cat, the young woman made her way into the small kitchen, where she dropped her grocery bag onto the floor by the fridge and proceeded to put away the merchandise in the fridge and cupboards.

While doing so, a prickling sensation crept up Haruhi's spine, actually reaching the point where it felt so eerie that the woman paused in her chore to turn and look behind her. Had she forgotten something? Something important? Had she missed an appointment, or a class? Maybe a significant meeting or a Halloween party?

Glancing at her watch, she realized it was too late for anything dinner party related to be happening, and the dark quality of the sky ruled out any outside activities. It was even too late for trick or treaters. Could it have been a—

There was a crash in the adjoining living room, followed by a loud caterwaul from the fat white stray Haruhi had picked up three months ago and christened Aki. The brunette jumped, dropping the jar of peanut butter onto the floor, where it rolled until lodging between counter and floor. Her eyes quickly roved around the room before the large hazel eyes in question landed upon a broken vase and a small toy mouse in the middle of the room. The fat feline hissed and jumped onto the counter top before batting at Haruhi's hand.

"Hungry?" she noted dryly, smiling in spite of herself. The cat purred and rubbed against her hand when she scratched behind his ears, then nudged the brown bag. Sure enough, Haruhi extended her hand to pull out a small can of commoner tuna.

She inspected the can before noting that perhaps they should package ootoro in containers like this, and sell the fancy fish at the same price she could buy the cat's food at. It would make several meals a lot more enjoyable. Alone.

Aki purred as the open can of food was set at his paws and set to work on it without further thought. Haruhi watched him for a moment, thinking, before picking up a dust pan and broom and moving to clean up the broken vase.

Huh, funny, she observed, bending to pick up some of the bigger pieces. I don't remember ever owning a vase like this…perhaps it was a going away present from dad? But it can't have been: it looks much to expensive for dad to buy it for me to take to law school. Where did it come from?

Still pondering where the vase had come from, Haruhi jumped as the phone rang. Cursing her nerves and laughing humorously at herself, she stood and reached for the phone that lay on the table by the small couch.

"Hello?" Haruhi asked, still examining a piece of broken vase that she held.

"_Hello,"_ answered a deep and male voice, sounding unfamiliar and smoky. Confused, Haruhi put the broken piece onto the table by the phone jack and turned her full attention to the phone call.

"Do I know you?" she asked, sure the answer would be 'no' but feeling she should ask all the time.

"_Why yes, Fujioka Haruhi,"_ came the reply, sending another shiver down Haruhi's spine.

"How do you know my name," she asked, blessing her voice for remaining calm in spite of the situation.

"_We met yesterday. Don't you remember?"_ A dark-made-light chuckle sounded on the other end of the line and Haruhi was sure that she was now experiencing one of those calls from the movies where the guy was wearing the scream mask. But this was much more real. _"I'm calling to wish you a happy Halloween, and to confirm the appointment we set yesterday. We filled out the necessarily forms and set your…appointment is dated for the seventeenth of next month?"_

"I-I'm sorry, but I never set such an appointment. Is it possible you have me mixed up with someone else? There are a lot of Haruhi's in Japan. About as many as there are Chins in a—"

"—_Chinese phonebook. Yes, you told me that joke when you came into my office. You then gave me specific instructions to call you and remind you of the date. I am simply following your requests." _

Still rather confused by this conversation, Haruhi turned to look at the small couch before picking at one of the spots where fluff poked through the fabric. Who the hell was this guy and how did he know what she was going to say? It was unnerving, not to mention more than a little peeving. Could this be a bad joke set up by some immature brat on the night of chills and frights? Was this guy some stalker? Haruhi really had no recollection of ever making such an appointment…

"Do you mind me asking you your name?" she asked, hoping that question would lead to some answers.

"_Dr. Ootori. Remember? We met the other day to discuss your surgery prep. Now, would you like your father to be present when we oper—" _

"—Leave my father alone!" Haruhi said (rather louder than necessary) into the receiver. For some reason, mention of her dad by this man made her feel sick and in some form of danger. Either way, it made her want to end this conversation with Dr. What's-it. "I think you have the wrong number, sir, and this is not funny. Please don't call me again."

And with that, she slammed the receiver into the cradle with more forces than necessary. Aki meowed and padded at her foot absently before rubbing against her legs. Haruhi noticed that her hands were shaking slightly and that butterflies were rocketing around her insides like cannons. It felt like she was going to be sick.

Aki meowed again, this time louder, before licking his lips and purring. Haruhi got the message the second time around. "Still hungry?" she asked incredulously. "That's why you're so fat, isn't it. You keep getting me to fix you extra meals." His only response was purring. Smiling, the brunette stooped to pick the fat feline up and walked back towards the kitchen to fix him another helping of canned food.

She'd just straightened up from opening the can, when something bright, orange and festive jack-o-lantern caught her eye. It was a Post-it, stuck on the refrigerator with several phone numbers and the date 'September 17th' written across it in big, bold letters. Curious, the commoner plucked the note off of the magnetic surface and stared at it, puzzled. She couldn't remember tacking this note up, nor taking a message that had anything to do with the seventeenth of September.

Absentmindedly, she allowed herself to drift into the living room for a second time and picked up the telephone to dial the number directly under the date. The number was underlined several times, obviously making it important. While the phone rang, Haruhi thought.

Maybe it was the stress. It gets to everyone eventually. After all, she was a law student, and they had just moved on to cases about even more disturbing crimes; the kind that kept you up at night—

_--Ring— _

--because you couldn't figure out who was at fault in the trial. The nanny who had been drunk on the couch while the infant drowned or the father of the infant, who was attempting to touch her, having thus slipped her something in her drink. Maybe the pressure was finally—

_--Ring— _

--Starting to get to her…

"_Hello, this is the Ootori Medical group. Dr. Ootori speaking. Who may I ask is calli—" _

Haruhi slammed the phone back onto the hook with a type of petrified and somewhat comical expression of terror and fright on her face that it made Aki hiss and skitter away from her.

Was that…Could that have been? That same doctor? The one who had…the appointment…The seventeenth of next month? The seventeenth of September? It was August right now…

"I think…I need…"

Hands still shaking, Haruhi reached for the phone again, and this time dialed a number she'd had memorized since high school.

The phone rang four times before the groggy and sleepy voice of one of the Hitachiin brothers filled her ear. Her gut feeling told her it was Hikaru, but her gut couldn't be trusted right now: it was too full of funny, crawling things.

"'_ello?"_ came the mumbled greeting. _"Haruhi? We have caller ID, so we know it's you."_

In the background, another voice asked, _"Why are you calling so late? We're sleepy! Do you know how many costume parties we had to go to for the sake of business?" _

Despite herself, the commoner cracked a grin. "I was studying for the exam I have tomorrow," she supplied, rubbing her eyes as the full weight of the extensive day crashed around her. "Hey, can I ask you two something: Did I ever mention a Dr. Ootori to you guys? Or anything special happening around the seventeenth of next month?"

She guessed that the twins must have shrugged, because she heard them hum noncommittal responses; the kind that only made sense with a shrug.

"_Why should we know?" "Did you really wake us up in the middle of the night to ask that? Don't you have…little ghosts and witches to give candy to?" _

"It's too late for trick or treaters, Kaoru. And alright, fine…I was just wondering," Haruhi said defensively. "I just can't seem to remember doing anything with any doctor in the past few months. I actually can't remember much from the last few months…"

"_Yeah, like you forgot to come to our dinner party last night,"_ Hikaru grouched. Kaoru supplied, _"We missed you. Our mother wanted to 'catch up and gossip' as she put it." _

"_And we wanted to see your costume." _

"_We thought you were going to be Alice from Wonderland. We looked really stupid in out cat costumes without you." _

"_Why'd you skip the party, Haruhi?"_

Baffled for what seemed like the infinite time that evening, Haruhi could do nothing but openly gape at the phone. She couldn't remember ever receiving such an invitation, let alone skipping it. Nor anything to do with Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat. She certainly wouldn't have done so if she'd known the twin's mother was going to be there: the woman was like a second mother to her on occasion, and the dinners with her and her sons were always memorable.

"I—I didn't remember getting the invitation. I'm sorry," she offered. Shrugging in spite of the fact the twins couldn't see her.

"_How could you not remember? We asked you to come yesterday, Haruhi. And you said you would." _

"_It doesn't matter,"_ she heard Kaoru add in the background. _"We can always have another one, but a Halloween part after Halloween is kind of stupid. Haruhi can come next time. Right, Haruhi?" _

"What? Yeah, sure. Of course." She felt as if her tongue weighed more than a ton, the sensation making it rather hard to speak and even harder to swallow. Haruhi's eyes roamed over the picture frames on the opposing wall and she felt her heart stop. "Hikaru…Kaoru…Do either of you remember the time the three of us went to the amusement park?"

"_Last year?" _

"_In America?" _

"_Wild Waves?" _

"_Yeah, why?" _

Haruhi felt her breathing become ragged and rather forced as she stepped closer to the frame holding a specific image: she and the two red headed Hitachiin boys. Haruhi was holding a huge commoner newspaper in front of her face while the twins proceeded to tease and poke at her while the friendly passer by took the picture they had asked him to. Behind them, the usual hustle and bustle of parks was also captured on film forever, and this was where Haruhi's puzzlement found the ideal piece to latch onto.

"Do you two remember that guy who kept following us around…the blond guy, with violet eyes? He…he's in the back of the picture of the three of us." Her voice was no more than a whisper at the end of her statement, but she guessed by the hurried shuffling and the _'oh my god, she's right'_ on the other end of the phone line that Hikaru and Kaoru had understood her exactly.

Haruhi felt her eyelids grow heavy and the next thing she knew, hot water was cascading down her body and suds were swirling around the drain of her stand in shower.

When…when did I decided to take a shower? Haruhi wondered. She reached to turn off the water and pulled back the curtain. She stepped onto the bathmat that she could not remember setting down and hurriedly dressed in the cloths she could not remember setting out.

Quickly tying her short hair in a quick bun, Haruhi allowed her gaze to sweep across the mirror, where her eyes locked and froze.

There, written in a font that could only be called finger-painting, were the words _'don't forget to call the doctor'_ scrawled into the fogged up mirror, just at her height.

Panic engulfed the short woman, and she hurriedly made to get out of the bathroom, tripping on the tangled towel and sliding into the door handle with her head. Now cursing the pounding head ache that made it no easier to think in the current state, the brunette yanked open the door of the small bathroom only to be confronted by what appeared to be a man standing opposite of her.

Haruhi screamed, high pitched and shocked. Surprised, so did the man. It must have been a trick of the light, but the woman did not pause to take the time to investigate the source of the mirrored actions. She grabbed the first thing she could (which happened to be a metal rimmed picture frame) and hurled it at the man before taking the opportunity to run down the thin hallway that lead into the kitchen and living room.

Haruhi grappled with the phone hook before her slippery fingers were able to grasp the phone. With shaky fingers, the only button she could dial was 'redial' before sprinting towards the door.

"_Hello? Haruhi, what the hell? You hung up on us without even an explanation—"_

The phone flew from her hand as Haruhi's bare feet collided with something furry and warm. Aki let out an indignant squawk before hissing at her and scrambling towards the door that Haruhi just noticed was wide open.

_Someone is in my house. _

The phone beeped electronically, successfully attracting the brunette's attention, only to give the signal that it's great flight across the room had resulted in a sudden lose of battery. The phone was dead, and there was some strange man in her apartment.

Haruhi made to get off the floor, only to fall back down when her ankle rolled and she found her face eating carpet. Pain, fear and all over panic took control and, like a wounded animal void of all hope and sense, the woman somehow made it to her hands and knees and crawled after Aki.

Something sounded behind her and, sure that it was the mystery man, Haruhi opened her mouth the let out a wordless scream before she made one great bounding leap that somehow managed to propel her half way out into the hallway of the building. The footsteps from behind her stopped, but the pounding pain in her head was too much for her senses and the threatening abyss of darkness loomed in front of her eyes. It offered peace, tranquility and a temporary escape from the pain and responsibility. Haruhi took the offer and the last thing she remembered was Aki mewling and the shout of someone for help.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The steady 'beep-beep-beep' was the only sound in the hospital room, apart from the raspy 'whoosh' of the incubator that was attached to the beds occupant. A sweep of dark brown hair was splayed across the pillow, medium length and no extraordinary color. Steadily, the beds occupants chest rose and fell with the assistance of the machines. It was a pitiful sight.

Motionlessly, two red headed figures with bright purple cat ears tied to their heads sat beside the bed, each deep in thought and worried. One (the one to the left) blamed himself for not believing Haruhi and thus not going to the apartment in time to prevent whatever happened from happening. The other, (the one to the right) incorrectly blames whoever the attacker is and vows to use every means he can to find who attacked his friend and make him pay. The doctors had not given them any information yet, using the clause that they were not the patient's legal family, thus no information could be disclosed to them. Impatient and scared shitless, the Hitachiin twins had sent their own personal car to pick up Haruhi's father, in hopes of that they would then get some straight answers.

However, they had no idea what was taking so long, thus allowed their minds to delve into their deepest recesses and dreg up more reasons that this was their fault. If Haruhi never woke up, they would never be able to sleep.

The seconds trickled by and eventually turned into minutes. As time often makes it so, the minutes, albeit, turned into hours and the hours seemed to stretch on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and then some more. And then some more and then some more and then some more and then some mo—

The door to Haruhi's room crashed open with a sudden swoop of air and in a second, the tall, red headed, cross dressing, glammed out, costumed father of their best friend loomed over to twins, attempting to be quiet and survey the damage. Fujioka Ranka had never been particularly close to the twins. He'd accepted the fact that they were the best friends of his only child, and this made it easier for him to trust him, but that did not mean that he trusted them entirely. Not at all. However, an event like this could only serve to deepen the somewhat stressed relationship between the three.

"Wha...what happened?" he asked, his voice stressed with that little heard parental worry that one would often called 'a bed side manor'.

"Dunno," Hikaru said, slouching in his chair and continuing to brood.

"The doctors wouldn't tell us anything," Kaoru continued. "There was a blond orderly in here earlier, but he just said that Haruhi was fine right now, and that we could sit here. They wanted to talk to you."

Ranka nodded, taking several deep breaths before reaching down to touch the shortest brunette's face. He flinched as he felt the bruised and puffy skin under his fingers and almost immediately withdrew his hand. "Where is that doctor—"

"I'm right here," came a voice from the still open door way of the room.

All three males swiveled around to stare at the dark haired and spectacled man who was now standing in their presence, dressed in a white lab coat and holding a diagnostic board, on which he scribbled something before placing it in the slot outside Haruhi's room and entering the space fully. He walked directly towards Ranka and extended a hand solemnly.

"You must be Mr. Fujioka. I am Dr. Ootori. It is nice to finally meet you." He had a commanding and suave voice that made the nonexistent hackles on the back of the twin's neck raise. This man seemed mysterious and at the moment, anyone who was mysterious was a viable suspect of who was in Haruhi's apartment.

"Doctor," Ranka greeted politely, shaking the other mans hand before glancing back over his shoulder towards the bed. Momentarily, Kaoru thought he saw the glisten of a tear in the older man's eye, but had no chance to confirm this with Hikaru (who was still brooding) before it was gone. "What's wrong with my baby? And why are you Haruhi's doctor now? It was just Dr. Kimiko last week."

The black haired man dipped his head and nodded understandingly. "Well, you see Mr. Fujioka, I am your son's consultant. He just made me his fully fledged doctor last week because he considered my opinion valuable. Also, that was going to be the only way he could get his desired operations and consultations."

Kyouya glanced at the boy on the bed and sighed. Ranka and the two red heads (he remembered their names to be Hitachiin from the sign in sheet) were looking at him with questioning stares and he figured that he'd just divulged some of Haruhi's more personal secrets without knowing it. Dammit.

"What do you mean?" one of the red heads snapped, glaring at him before at the bed.

Resignedly, the doctor tried to recall exactly what he had written on the lab sheets before coming down here. Cursing, he wished he had gotten the orderly to do this. Tamaki always had a better bed side manor than he did. "I take it you didn't know that your son was gender dysphonic?"

Silence greeted his question and although the twins seemed to understand the general gist of what he was saying, the cross dresser still stared at him with a dazed look and slightly glazed eyes.

"It means that he has multiple personalities," Kyouya pushed on. "It means that Haruhi, at some times, actually believed he was a she, and wouldn't remember things 'she' had done as a he. He would buy groceries and then 'she' would too, and not remember when she got the extra food. He would buy a vase and 'she' wouldn't remember it, thus thinking that it was something someone else had left there for 'her'."

Ranka drew in a sharp breath. "So…Ootori…Are you telling me that my son…thinks he's a girl half of the time?"

"Yes, generally. Your son, probably at some young age, experienced a traumatic event and was seeking help from an outside source—a way to escape, per say. Thus, this all-powerful and alter ego was created. Haruhi became a girl because he believed that a girl would be unaffected by whatever was going on around him. I'm guessing that, as he got older, it became harder to discern between the boy-Haruhi and the girl-Haruhi, and that's why he didn't remember which he was when, nor what he did in a different persona. Has your friend been forgetting anything lately?"

It took the twins a second to realize that the man was talking to them, and before answering, they hastily glanced at one another before sitting up straighter.

"No," Hikaru said, a look of though plastered on his face. "Haruhi's always been the one who remembered everything…He even remembers our mother's birthday when we don't…" The red head trailed off, a look of realization crossing his features before he looked straight into the doctors eyes. "Wait. Yeah, he forgot a dinner party with us last night."

"And he forgot that you were his doctor…" Kaoru finished. "Haruhi called to ask us who you were—"

"After I called to confirm an appointment?" He received nods before closing his eyes. "Yes. You see, Mr. Fujioka, your son was ready to stop being a boy and a girl, and ready to become just one. So, he had be schedule a sex-change surgery for the seventeenth of next month. And, after that, she would have been prepared to undergo severe therapy to rid herself of the male presence. Now, I know that might be upsetting, but I truly believe that Haruhi is capable of making—"

"—Shhh…" Ranka said, holding a finger up and walking closer to Haruhi's bed. He reached out to touch his sons face, and this time he did not flinch. He brushed the hair from the bruised and battered face that so many pictures he possessed belonged to and sighed. He knew which physiological element had played in Haruhi's break. It was the death of his mother: the accident. But that didn't explain how this whole 'gender dysphonic' thing worked. What had been going on in Haruhi's mind when he inflicted such great injuries on himself, while believing he was a she? "What happened to him?"

Kyouya cleared his throat before reciting the story that the two detectives had told him in the hall. "It is believed that Haruhi had a mental break. Too many variables came into play and the world of him and the world of her crossed over, and, while in the female world, she freaked out. Since he was in the shower, and there was a mirror that was un-fogged just outside the bathroom door, 'she' saw his reflection and thought it was an attacker. Thus, in her disoriented state from the blunt force trauma to her head, she staggered down the small hall and made it half way out of the door before fainting." He looked approvingly at the beds occupant. "I'll give him this, though: not many people would have remained conscious after trauma like that. He's a fighter."

Ranka stood, silent. He brushed Haruhi's hair again. And again. And again. His son. Had he really been that traumatized after his mother's car crash? The one that the boy had walked away from, unscathed and unharmed? Had he felt that, as a girl, he would be better? Ranka sniffed.

Seeing his que to exit, the doctor backed out of the room, but this was not unnoticed. Chair legs scrapped the cool tile of the floor as the younger of the Hitachiin twins lunged after him, following the doctor out into the hallway before directly addressing him. "Sir. Ootori-sama!"

The black haired man turned and nodded. "You're the Hitachiin boy, right? One of them, anyway."

"Yes, I'm Kaoru," he said bluntly, not up for a game of 'which-one's-Hikaru' or beating around the bush much. Being rather frazzled, he cut straight to the point. "What are…What are Haruhi's chances of recovering from the…the incident?"

He'd been working for seven hours straight to console a little girl who's brother had locked her in the closet of their home without any light, as well as smooth out several personal problems with his father, not to mention all the hours he'd just put into the hospital. It was the weekend, not to mention a holiday and with it being Halloween (he looked at his watch and realized that is was the day after Halloween) and this amounted to seventeen drunk drivers, thirteen attempted robberies that ended in violence and a kid who thought he was dying, when he really should have just eaten less chocolate. Wearily, Kyouya blinked for a second before reopening his eyes. The boy was still there.

"That all depends on him…and her." He said, before gesturing towards the room. "You see, your friend's mind has already been muddled, even before the collision with what I assume to be a door. Every person with that injury has a 50% chance of recovering, but with the mental trauma…You see, Hitachiin Kaoru, it takes will to live, and there is an everlasting battle going on inside your friend in there. Personally, I'm not sure if either parts of him contain enough will for it to pull him through this."

And with that he left, leaving the red headed boy with a whole lot more information than his mind could handle, while the familiar 'beep-beep-beep' and 'whoosh' were accompanied by a few, dry sobs and the sound of his brother punching a chair at pure frustration at being unable to do anything.


End file.
